TargetTalk

I've got a pair of college club air rifle shooters who report the same problem.

Both are right-handed shooters.

They know about NPA and how to build a position and trigger control.

They both report seeing the 10, and having the rifle twitch off to the left when the air rifle fires.

I think they aren't quite nailing NPA, but they both insist they are.

Besides frequent NPA checks yesterday, I really looked for bends in their knees, and made sure their positions were upright, and that their hips and shoulders were aligned.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

I would consider cheek pressure/cheekpiece issues if I thought everything else was correct.

Roy,

Since you are talking about air rifle I am assuming you are talking about the standing position.

I would look in two areas:

The first thing I will say is that the natural point in offhand can be more a natural area of aim. Certainly somewhere in that area is the true center point but it can be very hard to pin down, especially for a newer shooter. Next, due to how close together the feet are (say often around 0.5 meters) a 1cm change in the fore aft position of the rear foot will amount to a 20 cm change in point of aim at the target line. The two controls there are; moving the rear (right) foot fore and aft just a tiny bit at time. The other less obvious control is the point of the forward(left) foot toe. Clearly the shooter wants to be in a comfortable stance but if you pivot the left foot on the heel and move the toes out (open the stance) this will shift NPA to the left and naturally vise versa.

The second area to look at will be, as Charlotte suggested, in the cheek and I will say more likely the shoulder. There are two ways to release the shot, squeezing the trigger or holding the trigger finger still and using the right shoulder to push the rifle forward and left and consequently the trigger into the stationary finger to release the shot. Most airguns these days at least have shims to play with length of pull so you can try that. Also, are the shooters using riser blocks? If not they should try that too. It is not uncommon for someone with a longer neck or lower shoulders (kinda the same) to need riser blocks to get the sights up the eye without having to unconsciously raise the shoulder or pull the neck down. This can preload the shooter to push the rifle as the shot is released as well.

Good Luck
'Dude

Solved a similar problem several years ago by slightly (less than 1 cm) shortening the lop. The only external sign of the problem was the occasional (but related to the off shot) twitch of the tendon in the back of the trigger hand.

It is important to have the trigger adjusted correctly so that the shooter is pulling the trigger straight back. If the trigger is too far forward, the shooter will place pressure on the right side of the trigger as he/she squeezes the trigger. This will cause the gun to move to the left as the shot is executed

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Here's what we've done so far.

On one shooter, I moved his trigger farther back so he can reach it easier.

On the other shooter, he's working on putting a little more cheek pressure on the cheekpiece. He had been just sort of touching it, but now, he's tucking his chin just a little more to get a better cheek weld.

It's only been one day, but I'll let y'all know farther down the road if these adjustments helped significantly or not.

Thanks again,

Roy Hill

I just wanted to add some updates.

Thanks for the suggestions on cheek pressure.

On one shooter, that change has netted big results.

His personal best had been a 529 in practice previous to changing his cheek pressure.

Since changing the cheek pressure, he's shot a 540 in a match, and has cranked out even higher scores in practice.

On the other shooter, we lengthened the buttstock just a little, so the gun gets to his shoulder without him having to put foward pressure on it.

He's also seen an increase in scores, just not as dramatic as the other guy.

But thanks again.